A former customer in Kingston asked me to replace the clear single-glazed panel above a wooden door with a frosted double-glazed unit. The aim was to improve both insulation and privacy because people walking past could see straight through towards the garden.
I expected it to be fairly straightforward. It was not.
Years of paint had buried the edges of the timber battens, and the patterned wood made it extremely difficult to tell where the glazing stops actually were. In the end I removed the old glass carefully and, because there was enough depth available, fitted the new double-glazed unit without having to disturb all of the original battens.
That still left a long finishing process: putty inside and out, new timber battens to hold the glazing securely, filler in the joints, sanding, painting, waiting for everything to dry and finally cleaning the finished area.
The job took long enough for a lunch break in the middle of it, which says quite a lot about how optimistic my original “easy job” assessment had been.
The finished result was worth the effort. The new frosted unit gave the customer the privacy and improved glazing they wanted, although at the time I was fairly convinced I would never volunteer for another one quite like it.
